PING PESTILENCE!
Posted on 06/15/2006 7:31:26 AM PDT by abb
LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Servicecut its credit rating on Tribune Co. (TRB.N: Quote, Profile, Research) one notch on Thursday, sending its debt to "junk", because of the U.S. publisher's plans to increase its debt load to return cash to shareholders. The publisher and broadcaster's plan to buy back stock had already prompted downgrades from Moody's, and rivals Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings to the lowest level of investment grade at the end of May.
In a statement, Moody's said it cut its rating on Tribune to Ba1 from Baa3 and assigned a stable outlook. The downgrade affects about $5 billion of debt, Moody's said.
It said the downgrade was prompted by Tribune's intention to return capital to shareholders at a rate that would push adjusted debt to more than 4 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), and more than 10 times adjusted free cash flow.
Junk is too kind.
Another good news story from the PingPest...
Now it is official...JUNK.
We have known that all along.
Junk fishwraps deserve Junk Bond ratings.
Pardon the pun, but it's soon to be not worth the paper it's printed on...
LOLOLOLOL!! Fer sure it ain't worth the trees dying...
PING PESTILENCE!
I strongly urge that, as a recovery tactic, the Tribune immediately cease publication of the LA Times. I have no idea whether this would improve the Tribune's financial standing. My thought is that it would help me to recover from the recent horror of somebody having started an unrequested Times subscription for me. (Yes, this really happened, and it was hard to get it stopped. Yuccchhh.)
Publishing (FYI)
The publishing segment represented 73% of the Company's consolidated operating revenues during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2005 (fiscal 2005). Tribune's primary daily newspapers are the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, The Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, Daily Press, The Advocate and Greenwich Time. The Chicago Tribune, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Daily Press, The Morning Call, The Advocate and Greenwich Time are printed in Company-owned production facilities. The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and The Hartford Courant are printed on Company-owned presses in production facilities leased from an affiliate.
Tribune owns targeted publications, including three editions of the Spanish language newspaper, Hoy. Hoy, New York, Hoy, Chicago and Hoy, Los Angeles. The Spanish language newspaper operates hoyinternet.com, a national Spanish language Website. The Company also owns Tribune Media Services, Inc. (TMS), which creates, aggregates and distributes news, information and entertainment content that reaches millions of users through print, online and onscreen media. The TMS News and Features group licenses content from more than 600 writers, artists, newspaper and magazine publishers, and wire services to roughly 4,000 media customers worldwide. The TMS Entertainment Products group creates television (TV) and movie guide products for media companies and consumers. TMS provides data for interactive program guides to cable and satellite operators. Tribune also operates CLTV, a regional 24-hour cable news channel serving Chicagoland.
Broadcasting and Entertainment
The broadcasting and entertainment segment represented 27% of the Company's consolidated operating revenues in fiscal 2005. As of December 25, 2005, the segment included The WB Television Network (The WB Network) affiliates located in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, Miami, Denver, St. Louis, Portland, Indianapolis, San Diego, Hartford, New Orleans and Albany; the FOX Network television affiliates in Seattle, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Hartford, Grand Rapids and Harrisburg; an ABC television affiliate in New Orleans; one radio station in Chicago; the Chicago Cubs baseball team, and Tribune Entertainment. In fiscal 2005, television contributed 83% of the broadcasting and entertainment segment's operating revenues. Radio/entertainment operations contributed 17% of the broadcasting and entertainment segment's operating revenues in fiscal 2005.
Tribune Entertainment is a distributor of programming in the United States syndicated television, cable television and ancillary markets. In fiscal 2005, Tribune Entertainment entered into a variety of distribution, production, and advertiser sales relationships with suppliers, such as DreamWorks SKG for the domestic syndication and advertisement sales of their film library, FremantleMedia, Hearst Entertainment, MGM Television, Carlton America, Sony Television and NBC/Universal Television. These arrangements comprise over 384 television and theatrical motion pictures and more than 1,289 episodes of various television series and specials. Tribune Studios, a subsidiary of Tribune Entertainment, manages a 10.5-acre studio production lot in Hollywood. Management of the site includes facilities rental of nine digital sound stages and associated production office space.
My bird refuses to crap on the NY Times.
Bond, JUNK Bond...
The dinosaur media appears to be stuck in the tar pit.
That is probably the Times trying to prop up there circulation figures.
Pity party at 5pm
The only industry that insults and lies to its customer base daily.
Actually, they have gone past being stuck in the tar pits.
Now they are sinking into the tarpits like they are in a "Quagmire"!
Yay!!!
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